Global academic and director appointed Head of Performing Arts

Edge Hill University’s new head of Performing Arts aims to help the department build an international profile while staying at the cutting edge of creativity.

David Peimer, Professor of Drama and Head of the Department joins the University with vast experience of academia, writing and directing, working at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division).

He has also worked in Prague as the first English speaking director in Vaclav Havel’s theatre, London and parts of southern Africa, directing contemporary and classical work, from Shakespeare to modern European performances and South African work.

David was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, was involved and was arrested for being part of anti-apartheid theatre in the 1970s and 80s, and also contributes to the Pinter Centre for Performance and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths in London as a Theatre Director and Research Associate. He has also created and presented work in the EU Parliament’s Culture Department in Brussels.

He said: “I wanted to come to Edge Hill to maintain a professional and academic career in a global context, and I also want to help work with colleagues to build the department nationally and internationally. The staff are superb, highly committed, supportive, creative and research active. As the Xhosa say: ‘I am because we are’.

“I love working with students and try to combine a regional and global mind-set for inspiration, and my views are aligned with the Edge Hill ethos of creating a dynamic and supportive environment, where we can grow creatively and academically together.

“I really enjoy being a part of something that is growing and developing and if I can make a small contribution to that growth that is important.

“It’s also exciting to work somewhere where there is so much passion and hunger from the students. For some it is the first time anyone in their family will have come to university, so they are very determined to succeed and I want to combine the enthusiasm for performance with academic rigour.”

Professor Peimer will develop employment and internship opportunities and further develop the department’s graduate companies. The department is also building a strand in circus and clowning, arts, musical theatre, technical theatre and events management and developing its highly successful aerial performance provision.

“We plan to build on the niche areas we have expertise in that aren’t covered elsewhere in the North West, whilst developing the core areas of dance, drama, design and music.

“We are developing more relationships with the profession, raising the bar, making international links and aim to put the department more on the map.”